The Accountrepreneur LLC

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-Owner of Kismet Bagels

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Own and operate Multiple Bagel Shops as well as Farmers Market Stands.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire The Accountrepreneur LLC to accomplish?

• Learn Profitability of Various Channels of our Business
• Organize our finances in a way that we could regularly view and understand them

SOLUTION

How did you find The Accountrepreneur LLC?

Referral

Why did you select The Accountrepreneur LLC over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from The Accountrepreneur LLC were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Alex, Nicole and team were hired to help us get our finances in order. We had no structure or bookkeeping and as a result, had no true idea of how the various channels of our business were performing. The team built a robust system with all of our various channels allocated, and it was tremendous. 

We learned so much about our business and were able to make clear and thoughtful changes as a result of Alex's work. We met monthly but Alex and the team were always available for random meetings/calls as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Due to the efforts of Alex, we were able to streamline several aspects of our business in order to generate more profits. We also are now far more organized than we were (which was zero) prior to meeting Alex. We now feel properly equipped to have a strong handle and pulse on our business on a monthly basis, and it's largely because of Alex's work!

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They always delivered items on time, and were always thorough with their diligence / research / etc. Any time we had a need or a desire, they met that with hard work and thoughtfulness. A++++

What was your primary form of communication with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I found Alex's approach to be the most unique thing about his company. Most of the time when you think of an Accountant, you imagine talking to someone who has no interest in having a personality or taking the time to truly get to know you. Alex is the polar opposite. You really feel like you get to know each other and can just be REAL with each other. Alex immediately becomes PART OF THE TEAM, and that was so wonderful to experience.

Are there any areas for improvement or something The Accountrepreneur LLC could have done differently?

Zero. Everything The Accountrepreneur LLC did was fantastic.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of The Real Coconut Products Co. LLC. We make packaged food products, primarily tortillas and burritos, made with coconut flour.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

We needed a partner who could do our bookkeeping and accounting work, such as month-end closing, accounts receivable, and accounts payable management. The food industry has unique aspects to it, so we wanted to find a company that understood our industry and our specific business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Accountrepreneur has helped us with our day-to-day bookkeeping and the month-end process. Additionally, they provide us with financial reporting at the end of each month. As for the technology stack, we use QuickBooks as our accounting software and SOS Inventory for inventory management. Moreover, we use Bill.com for our payment management.

What is the team composition?

We work with Alex (Founder, Principal & Chief Numbers Officer), a controller in charge of the month-end work, and a bookkeeper.

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

We got referred to them. After meeting them, they sent a very robust sample reporting packet. Seeing the type of work they do for their clients made us decide to work with them. Additionally, they let us know that Alex would be working directly on our account, which was also an important selling point.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around April 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Thanks to The Accountrepreneur, we don’t need to hire someone internally to handle our accounting and bookkeeping, which was our main objective from the beginning. Additionally, their work has been error-free because they’re very accurate and good at what they do.

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

The Accountrepreneur’s timeliness is great; we’re always closing our books on time. We communicate via phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Accountrepreneur’s biggest strength and what makes them stand out from the rest is their knowledge of packaged food companies. Alex is very knowledgeable in our industry and companies like ours, which is very important. Their knowledge makes them be very effective at what they do because they understand all the nuances and unique aspects of our business, providing us with great reports and helping us make the best managerial decisions based on those reports.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They’ve done a good job, so I don’t have any constructive feedback for them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know that The Accountrepreneur is very flexible, so if you ask them to see the reporting in a different way, they’re more than willing to work with you on that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a beverage company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

Our business was growing, and we didn’t have the internal capacities to handle our bookkeeping and financial knowledge needs, so we needed someone to assist us in that area.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Accountrepreneur LLC does accounting services for us. They do basic bookkeeping, including accounts payable, so they receive all of the invoices from our suppliers. They also process those bills in a software system and manage them through approval. In addition to that, their team does month closures where they close our books every month and analyze our financial statements to prepare them. Overall, they take care of general company bookkeeping for us.

Their team also provides outsourced CFO by analyzing our financial statements to give recommendations on what we should or shouldn’t be doing — they attend our board meetings to make their suggestions. 

In terms of technologies, they use QuickBooks, Excel spreadsheets, and Bill.com.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been working with Alex (Founder) and Megan (Senior Manager).

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

They were referred to me by someone who knew about their work.

How much have you invested in them?

We pay them a monthly retainer of around $4,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They’re always 100% on time to complete our monthly financial reporting and statements. Also, they’re accurate on accounts payable and receivable processing. 

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

I rate their project management abilities very high; they’ve held up our game in terms of understanding the financial flows of our business and cost savings opportunities to make us more efficient as a company. Their team is also good at proactively seeking out improvement areas so we can make our customers win.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very entrepreneurial-minded, which is outstanding. Other providers operate just within the box, but The Accountrepreneur LLC seeks out opportunities and constantly looks for improvement areas or recommendations to do a better job. Overall, they go above and beyond the call of duty to support us, and that willingness to exceed our expectations is what makes them a great partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on — they’ve been stellar with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure that there’s a good handover and knowledge transfer — that’ll set you up for success. Also, make sure that everyone involved in the process has a chance to know the key touchpoints and establish a relationship — the stronger the relationship, the better the teams can operate together in the future. Having formal kickoff meetings can be useful.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I serve as the CFO / Finance lead for a CPG company that has grown from pre-revenue through acquisition by a larger strategic.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Accountrepreneur LLC, and what were your goals?

While the business was small, there was a need for accurate bookkeeping that we could be confident in taking through an acquisition in the future, but we did not want an internal hire as the quantity of work did not fit a full time position.

However, the stakes were high and we needed someone that with the experience in the industry to ensure an audit trail we could trust.

SOLUTION

How did you select this firm and what were the deciding factors?

We selected The Accountrepeneur because they knew the industry deeply, had experience in taking companies through the same steps and projected confidence in the knowledge of the accounting detail required.

Describe the engagement and overall scope of work in detail, including the stages of the partnership and any software or documents used.

Alex and his team served as the full accounting department from early on through the diligence period of the strategic acquisition. This included reconciliations and detailed tracking of details, as well as A/P and payroll.

Describe their billing or cost structure.

The monthly rate covers most "typical" months and gives us confidence in planning. During the due diligence leading up to the acquisition there were obviously some added expenses, but those were very reasonable for the time commitment we needed.

How many resources from the firm's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Two, the founder and a day to day accounting resource.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the engagement or general feedback about the services?

Accuracy of their day to day work is hard to measure, but it would not be a stretch to say that they saved us $15k+ in just the due diligence period not having to pay the CPA firm to help manage the deal.

The monthly cost is less than the two roles we would have needed to fill to provide the services in house, but their level of experience wouldn't have been anywhere near our budget if we had to hire directly. Like I said, hard to measure, but it was not all about cost savings.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Amazing at communication. They monitor email daily and never were more than a few hours from responding to a request to at least give us a solid timeline to completion.

The monthly accounting closes NEVER extended past the 5th business day and usually happened within an hour or so of them receiving the final document that they needed to complete their work.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their knowledge of the space they were working in was most impressive. Too many accounting groups try to focus more broadly than they have the experience and having a partner with their experience through all of the newness and questions of building the company was invaluable.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No, not at all. They are by far the best group I wave worked with in this role.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Poppilu, a beverage company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

I needed someone with strong accounting and financial acumen to manage the finances of my business. I knew how my business was doing, and I relied on The Accountrepreneur LLC to do all my bookkeeping and accounting.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Alex (Founder & Principal) and his team are in charge of doing all of my monthly and end-of-the-year reports, as well as forecasting all of my financial statements. They do the profit and loss balance sheet of cash flow and provide us with guidance on how to interpret the numbers to make sure that we’re making the right business decisions based on that information.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with two people from The Accountrepreneur. Alex is my main point of contact, and he has another person on his team who helps out with the work. I have the feeling that this other person does a lot of the stuff that I don’t even know about, but I talk to Alex on a much more frequent basis.

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

They reached out to me through a cold solicitation. A friend of mine that also has a beverage brand was working with them and had a great experience.

They were based in Chicago and focused on small food and beverage businesses. I was comfortable with working with them because they understood my industry — that was very helpful.

How much have you invested with them?

Their services cost around $2,300 a month, which is around $27,000 a year. We’ve worked with them for 2–3 years, so we’ve spent somewhere between $50,000–$75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around January 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

I measure the success of our engagement based on their responsiveness, speed, knowledge of the industry, and the presentation of their reports. The Accountrepreneur has been excellent on every front.

In my business, I work with various contractors from time to time. There are very few of them in which I fully trust and keep working with year after year, and they’re one of them.

I’ve been able to rely on their services and never question what they’re doing. I’ve never had to doubt their ability, timeliness, deliverables, nor work — that means a lot to me and gives me great peace of mind.

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is perfect. They’re timely and always understand the information that I try to find. They’re also very available. I get to talk to Alex at any moment whether it is by text or phone calls.

We communicate via email, text, and phone, and we hold Zoom meetings where we can share screens to see what we’re working on. We also use Quickbook as our primary tool for reporting.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been most impressed with how well The Accountrepreneur knows my business despite having many clients. As CEO and founder, I try to keep very close tabs on my financial statements and books. I’m always impressed by how much of that detail they know and are able to retain.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If I felt that they had areas of improvement that actually mattered, I’d go to someone else — Alex and his team are fantastic.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Alex’s understanding and knowledge of food, beverages, and other consumer goods startup companies are unparalleled. He knows what he’s doing and truly understands entrepreneurship — he’s fantastic.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of Quevos. We make healthy, high protein, low-carb chips made from egg whites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

We needed help with accounting.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They do our monthly bookkeeping for us. The team reconciles the company’s expenses and financial statements in QuickBooks. They also give us financial advice around our spending and cash burn. The team also helps with financial modeling with a robust system which we can use for personal planning and to show to investors.

What is the team composition?

We work with Alex (Founder & Principal) and Jamie (Accounting Analyst).

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

Alex reached out to us on LinkedIn. He was building his initial base of clients and he was also working with a friend of ours. Talking with that friend gave us a lot of confidence to move forward.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $30,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2018, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Their responsiveness, accuracy, and speed all meet our expectations. I’m very happy with their work. The Accountrepreneur is the best solution for our accounting since we’re still fairly small.

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re pretty good. Anytime we give them a project, they always hit the necessary deadlines. Their work is high quality and they have high attention to detail. I have a monthly call with Alex and we also communicate via email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their reliability stands out. I’ve been working with Alex for two and a half years and we get the same level of quality and client dedication as the first day. He’s always quick to respond and available to talk when we need him.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been times where Alex has come up with an accounting principle for us to use without consulting with me first. He has so much experience that he tends to run with things; there have been a few times where I could’ve used a conversation so I could weigh in on the strategy.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the co-founders of a coconut water company. We manufacture all-natural coconut water and supply it to retailers as well as consumers. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

They’re our full-service finance group.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We count on them for all things finance and accounting. They handle all of our payroll, tax, and balance sheet needs. We refer to Alex (CPA) as our CFO because he manages all financial matters, including investor presentations.  

What is the team composition?

We work directly with Alex.

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

Alex worked for us prior to forming his company. 

How much have you invested with them?

We have a monthly spend with them and have spent between $50,000–$100,000 to date. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since March 2018.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The quality of work is very high. They keep us ahead and organized in our finances, so we never need to worry. In our business, we need to be raising capital almost constantly. They play a huge role at our company in keeping track of our finances. 

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

He’s incredibly organized and knows our company so well that he can solve problems almost immediately. Additionally, he makes himself very available for us. We rely on him quite a bit but can always get ahold of him. It feels like we’re his only client. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Alex is very important to the success of our business. He’s loyal and honest. We feel fortunate to have him as such a big part of this company. I can’t imagine what our company would be without his excellent services and personal touch.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We are confident and enthusiastic about his services.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend his services to anyone. Alex is knowledgeable in what’s needed to raise funds for early-stage companies. He’s a great partner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Rumi Spice. We’re a consumer goods business importing and selling spices from Afghanistan.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

The Accountrepreneur provides all of our financial planning and management.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team handles everything from our month-end reconciliation, bill payments, and financial forecasting and long-term planning. We use Quickbooks for our overall financial management, and Bill.com to manage bill processing and approval.

What is the team composition?

The majority of our contact is with Alex (Founder). We sometimes have a bit of additional contact with one other person on his team.

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

We belong to an incubator that’s based nearby. The Accountrepreneur was doing a presentation for the incubator, which is how I got to know Alex and eventually bring them on board.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $4,400 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since December 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The number one thing for us is the quality of financial reporting The Accountrepreneur brings. We get a really tight set of financial reports and metrics as part of our monthly reporting, which is really important and helpful for us. Everything we’ve done with The Accountrepreneur has been on time and accurate. 

They’re also a really good strategic partner in terms of providing guidance and identifying benchmarks. The team has a lot of experience in the industry, so they’re able to really look at it and offer great feedback. They’ve met and exceeded all of our goals.

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really strong. The team tends to operate within our ecosystem. Each month they upload our financials to a particular part of our Dropbox, and we find they’re always there and labeled consistently. In terms of organization and communication, they’re always very consistent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve given us easy visibility to all the financial metrics that drive our business. They provide data consistently and in an accurate way, which is what I need from someone who’s managing the financial side of my business. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any major critiques. This has been one of the best consulting engagements I’ve ever had. The Accountrepreneur delivers on what they say they’re going to; it makes it really easy to work with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand what are going to be the most important financial tools to run your business. Then, start with helping them either set those up for you or validate or evolve them, because that’s really what The Accountrepreneur is good at.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a luxury item e-commerce company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

We previously worked with another company that managed our accounting needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We fully outsource our accounting work to The Accountrepreneur. Their team provides services ranging from basic bookkeeping to CFO-level support such as strategic finance consulting. They handle account payables and account receivables. Their team helps us with inventory build and projections too. At one point, they also helped us to negotiate with our creditors and vendors.

What is the team composition?

We only work with Alex (Founder, Principal & Chief Numbers Officer).

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

I found them through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $80,000–$90,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2018, and our partnership’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Our books are incredibly organized, and our accounts are paid on time. Alex helps with more strategic initiatives such as discussions with creditors. He makes sure that our working capital cycle aligns with our business plan too. Alex is an integral part of our annual planning process. When I pass a task to The Accountrepreneur, I know that they’ll take care of it in a rational way.

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

Alex keeps a to-do list for every client. Basically, he misses nothing. When I give him a task, he enters it into his to-do list. He’s on top of communication too. When we went through a working capital issue, he hopped on calls on Saturdays and Sundays to strategize with us. Alex is more than available. When he’s not, he’s upfront about it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

At the end of 2018, we had a significant working capital issue. We basically mismanaged the company’s debt-stack. That was right around the time when we brought Alex on board. Even though it was a messy situation, he dove right into it. The Accountrepreneur helped us untangle a lot of mess. He led negotiations with our creditors and helped us strategize a path forward.

Their team distills the information that we provide them and separates what does and doesn’t matter. They tighten our focus to 1–2 pieces of data that really matter. The Accountrepreneur digests information and forms a coherent, focused narrative around numbers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have any constructive feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This may be uncomfortable because Alex isn’t an internal colleague. However, give him all of the information upfront. For example, when we want him to build a projection, we give him our purchase orders from the last two years. Give them more data than less.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the COO of a low ingredient, natural ice cream company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur?

We worked with them on a wide variety of financial services and processes for our company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have helped us with assessing the cost and finance structure of our online store and partnerships in retail and grocery stores. That includes everything from all of the costs associated with those to consistently evaluating our pricing model and target customers to get the best possible understanding of our margins on both of those revenue streams.

What was the team composition?

Our interactions have all been directly with Alex (Owner).

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur?

We met the owner at an event in Chicago, and he was local to the area and came recommended by another food owner in the area. The timing worked out really well for us because we were just starting out, so we decided to move forward with him.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, our spend with them has been somewhere between $5,000–$10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first partnered with them in July 2018 and are continuing to do so.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We still handle our day-to-day accounting, but they have been incredibly helpful in all of the projects we’ve worked on with them, which has freed up a lot of our time and helped us to really hone down the efficiency of a lot of our areas of revenue and save us money in the long run.

Any time we have specific questions we can take those to them, and they are able to answer all of those for us. Whether it’s how to build out 3–4-year revenue projections or just figuring out manufacturing fees, they have been in the trenches with us to make sure the margins were where they needed to be.

How did The Accountrepreneur perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management capabilities have been great so far. Everything is very organized and very fair, and we always get tasks completed within the expected time frame that we set out at the beginning. If we do need to make any modifications or adjustments along the way, they’re very flexible in accommodating those as well. We mostly communicate through email, but before the pandemic, we had a lot of in-person meetings as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The working relationship has been really enjoyable for us, honestly. He goes above and beyond on projects in ways that are not part of the initial scope just to help us more and is always willing to take on additional tasks.
Alex is very good at explaining things to us in a way that we can understand without having a background in finance.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really can’t think of anything in particular that I wish he was doing differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask as many questions as possible, because sometimes you don’t even know what you don’t know, but his skill really lies in being able to illuminate the subject for you and make it seem far more accessible than it does from the outside.